In a corner of a field below, by the side of the brook, and as the military way turns, up the hill, is another such milliary stone, but no inscription legible.
The moory country hereabouts has coal under it. Upon the tops of the hills are several cairns, or sepulchral heaps of stones, made by the old Britons.
A little eastward of Great Chester, where the ditch ends, at the bottom of a cliff, we saw the foundation of the Wall, which the country people are digging up for building: we measured the true breadth of it, just seven Roman feet.
HOUSESTEEDS.
[TAB. LXXVI.]The next station we visited, about two miles from the former, and by the Wall, is deservedly called Housesteeds, from the vestigia of the houses therein, which are as easy to be seen and distinguished as if ruined but yesterday. Approaching the farmer’s house there, I saw a mill or two, i. e. the recipient stones of the hand-mills which the Roman soldiers used to grind their corn with; likewise some tops of altars: over the door of the house, a large carved stone, but defaced. Going a little further, in a corner of a dry wall is a large stone that has been curiously cut, but now broken and much injured: three figures in it, in high relievo; two with sacrificing cups in their hands: I believe it has belonged to some temple, and means the Genii of three cities: it is in my learned friend Mr. Horsley’s 20th table, but poorly represented: they seem to stand before steps. Near it, in the wall, is the bottom part of a very large altar, or pedestal of a pillar, a yard square: near that a long carved stone, somewhat like the shaft of our later crosses.
75·2d. Prospect of Chester on the Wall & the Picts Wall. Septr. 1. 1725.
Stukeley delin.